George Washington

George Washington (22 February 1732-14 December 1799) was the first official president of the United States.

Biography
George Washington made his mark on American history with his first entry into combat. On May 28, 1754, as a young lieutenant-colonel in the Virginia militia, he clashed with French troops in the backwoods of the Ohio Valley, firing the first shots of what became the French and Indian War. In July 1755, returning to the Ohio country as aide to the British general Edward Braddock, he distinguished himself by his calm and courageous conduct amid the mayhem of a defeat at Monongahela. When the war ended in 1758, he married down and settled down as a Virginia landowner. The American Revolution tore him from a peaceful life, however. He was elected as a Virginia delegate to the rebel Congress, and his experience of command in the French and Indian War made him an obvious choice to lead the Continental Army.

Order and Humanity
Washington was a conservative man, who believed in hierarchy and order. Although aware of the value of irregular troops in the American wilderness, he set out to make the Continental Army a European-style force built around disciplined, drilled infantry - a struggle, given the rag-tag group of militiamen, backwoods riflemen, and recruits from the lowest levels of society that he had to work with. The colonies could never be induced to provide enough men for his needs, nor enough money to pay and supply such troops as there were. Washington also had to cope with political machinations in Congress and stave off ambitious opponents who aspired to replace him.

Within the army, Washington imposed discipline with necessary severity, yet always showed proper concern for the welfare of his men. This approach carried him through the worst of crises, from near-starvation in the winter encampment at Valley Forge in 1777-78 to widespread mutinies in early 1781.

Washington realized that keeping his army going was his essential task - the British needed to win the war; he needed not to lose it. He used tricks and stratagems suitable to inferior forces, avoiding pitched battle where possible. His famous victory over British Hessian mercenaries at Trenton over Christmas 1776 was, in effect, a guerrilla raid. But political considerations often obliged him to stand and fight when it was unwise to do so. In August 1776, he was forced to defend New York City, leading to a defeat on Long Island from which he extricated his surviving troops with consummate skill. In September 1777, it was Philadelphia that had to be defended from a British offfensive. The resulting defeat at Brandywine gave him another unwanted chance to show how well he could handle a beaten army in retreat. He was unable to interrupt a British withdrawal to the coast at the battle of Monmouth in June 1778, which caused a violent arguement between the usually even-tempered Washington and his subordinate, Charles Lee. After this, the commander-in-chief could only exercise patience with his army in the north, while the south became the main active theater of war.

March to Virginia
The arrival of a French expeditionary force in 1780 shifted the balance of the conflict. The French commander Rochambeau agreed to place his army at Washington's disposal. They planned to trap the British forces under Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. Leading the British to expect an attack on New York City, Washington mrached an army 450 miles south to Virginia, where he forced Cornwallis to surrender.

Washington took off his uniform as soon as duty allowed, having once said that the post of commander-in-chief was one he had "used every endeavor in his power to avoid". No historic victory was ever achieved by a more reluctant hero. From 1789 to 1797 he served as President of the United States, defeating a rebellion of farmers in the 1796 Whiskey Rebellion.